Keith Moon is the first I thought of, but then I thought not, but it really depends on what you mean by “no one tried to emulate.” I think most aspiring rock drummers have tried to emulate Keith Moon at one time or another (which is why I thought better of that suggestion), but nobody really sounds like Keith Moon. He’s not even close to my favorite drummer, but I respect him for his energy and unique style he brought to the Who, such that any post-Moon songs by the Who just don’t sound like the Who to me, and nobody has that weird chaotic, slightly off-kilter sense of rhythm he has.
That said, I would say with most of the artists I love, they have an identifiable, unique style and voice to their expression, and nobody sounds like them, depending on how discerning your ear is, I guess.
I wouldn’t say a “clone,” but The Hold Steady certainly have a Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band vibe to them, though without the horn section, filtered through a Brooklyn bar band aesthetic with a singer with an “indie” voice as opposed to a more classic, powerful rock voice. But I (and many others) definitely hear a strong Springsteen & E Street Band influence to a lot of their music.
Bob Zmuda tried, sort of. IIRC, after Kaufman died, Zmuda appeared somewhere and did Kaufman’s Tony Clifton character, and was soundly booed off the stage by an audience who felt it was in bad taste. I think some of the Taxi actors complained about it as well. Apparently, none of them knew that Zmuda had been Clifton before, on occasion - and Kaufman was in on it.
Henry James? Some writers might be influenced by him but I’d be surprised if anyone tried to emulate him.
Also perhaps James Joyce - leaving aside the books that are seen as difficult (and haven’t been read by me), I can’t think of anyone that reminds me of The Dubliners.
I agree… After Keith died, so did The Who. Unfortunately since, Pete keeps diminishing Keith (and John) in an effort to tell the world, “They had nothing to do with it, it was all ME”
I can imitate Keith, and have in concert, but it would be cheating to do that on my albums. Being able to play Moon or Bonham note-for-note is nice, but its unoriginal. I give credit to those who did the creating.
The Airborne Toxic Event is similar to Springsteen in some of their songs except it’s deviates from Springsteen more musically than singing-wise. This slow song is their springsteeniest since it captures the energy and despair of youth.
One of the interesting things for me about Moon is that he never really seems to settle into a groove. I swear, I feel like he never plays exactly the same measure twice in a song – it feels like it’s constantly changing and always a little bit different and he also has this chaotic pulse to him that feels like it should fall apart at any time and break the song, yet he somehow manages to keep it together. It’s like a drum set falling down a flight of stairs, but in a somehow musical manner. I’ve heard people try to channel and imitate Moon, but it sounds too “controlled” and too “neat” to me. He just had his own quirky pulse that I’ve not heard anyone else have.
Sure. When I think Moon, I think tom fills all over the effing place, and a drummer who loves riding on the cymbals vs knocking out a hi hat groove. And a usually busy kick that knocks out eight notes (he doesn’t really seem to do sixteenth note patterns that much) that is not completely predictable.
I think it was more that the hi-hat monopolizes the left hand in a way that he didn’t want. But you may be onto something with the pedal, because I do know that Moon sometimes used hi-hats, fixed slightly apart, with no pedal at all.
From reading up on it, it looks like Moon didn’t use hi hat at all on tour from 1968-1972, but I can’t find any definitive reason for it. One source said that he wasn’t very good with the hi hat pedal, so when it was on stage, it was just used without the pedal.
Yeah, to me it seems like a lot of the constant tom fills he did were easier if he rode a cymbal on the right rather than hit a hi hat on the left (and I don’t think open position drumming was much used back then – where a right handed player would use the left hand on the hats and the right on the snare instead of crossing over, as is more usual.) Seems much more natural for his playing style to want to ride a cymbal on the right hand side of the kit with his right hand.
I also suspect the loudness of riding a ride and crash vs the more tight attack and quick decay of a hi hat suited his style better. You can turn those ride “pings” into crashes and cymbal washes by altering where and how you hit the cymbal with your stick. So, for someone with a manic style who wants to make a lot of noise, those cymbals make more sense to me than a hi-hat. (Though when he did use hi-hat, setting them in that half open/“sizzle” position that doesn’t require use of the foot pedal makes sense to me for him for creating that noisier sound with a longer decay and just more overall noise.